“The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes” shows the detective in his most dependable form: a puzzle, a baffled Watson, a neat explanation. That pattern is the comfort of the collection, though some readers find the cases too alike or a few of them dry, and prefer the longer novels. Its closing story, “The Final Problem”, is the reason anyone working through the canon should not skip it.

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About the book

The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes is a collection of short stories by British writer Arthur Conan Doyle, first published late in 1893 with 1894 date. It was first published in the UK by G. Newnes Ltd., and was published in the US by Harper & Brothers in February 1894. It was the second collection featuring the consulting detective Sherlock Holmes, following The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Like the first it was illustrated by Sidney Paget.

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Reading order · canon of Sherlock Holmes

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Where the score comes from

The sources average 8.4 across 366 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 71% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Short stories average of 7.8. That is how 8.2 comes out.